Rich, you can use any email service you prefer. many use Gmail. I have Gmail and Outlook accounts in addition to my WildBlue account (been around long enough to have a WildBlue email address with Exede service - started with WildBlue service.)

I don't live in the area you specified so, I can't speak to performance on that beam. I do see top speeds and often faster on my beam , have never seen below 4 Mbps down and, always right at 5 up.

Thanks for the reply Bev - so you use an email client, such as Outlook, where you enter your outgoing mail server (SMTP) which is not one provided by Excede, correct? This is the norm, but when I was with TDS they forced you to use their SMTP server unless you paid for a static IP address...

Yes. You can use your own email service and the email client of your choice. I use Thunderbird and gmail with no issues.

I have to ask though. You are looking for more reliability and do a lot of uploads? Uploads are not going to be much faster than 1.5Mbps. Download speeds are also going to vary widely depending on the time of day and beam you are on.

To clarify - they throttled my entire area of the county to 1.5Mbps... so often times I'd be lucky to download at 64kbs and not able to upload at all. In the evenings the service was virtually useless...and even at 5 am I couldn't do everything I needed to.

Virginia is covered by three different spot beams 321, 328 and 329. You're most likely on 328 or 329. I'm on 329, which covers the entire eastern part of the state from north to south and beyond.

Bandwidth is as advertised during non-peak uage periods - during the day (week days) for the most part (some exceptions are likely during the hoilidays). Prime time hours are generally slower. During prime time once priority data has been exhausted, expect much slower generally suitable for light web browsing and email using a desktop email client and any email server of your choice.

I use the service and I am in what is considered central Virginia, regardless of what some might think. I am halfway between Charlottesville and RVA. I only use Gmail so I can't about email but as long as you have priority data left the speed and reliability is good. Liberty pass speeds during the weekday is pretty good and stay within their advertised speeds of 1-5, mostly closer to 5 that to 1. Liberty pass on the weekends and at night is very slow and they tell you this up front that it will be slow. They now have their version of unlimited in this area since they launched the new sat last summer. A bit too pricey for me at 150 dollars. My only issue is how they record their data usage. When I was using dish net with routine surfing I could get through 20 to 25 days without running out of my 10Gb. With exede I barely make 10 days with 12 Gb. (note Dish net subcontracts on Exede's sats). FOr example my account just started over at midnight last night. I have the 12 Gb with free 3 to 6 am plan. My usage this morning at 5 am was 1.7 Gb. That means I used 1.7 Gb between midnight and 3 am. I have not changed any usage patterns since switching from dish and I live very rural so no one is stealing my wifi.